Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / March 17 - 2 Kings 25

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March 17 - 2 Kings 25 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello, friends. It's Sean here.
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  It's Monday, It's the 17th of March, and it's great to have
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  your company as we begin a new week.
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  We begin this week by finishing off this epic, enormous,
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  gargantuan story of the history of the kings of Judah and
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  Israel. No, not that book that the
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  scripture keeps on referring to. This has been first and 2nd
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  kings. And today we will draw that to
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  an end. And then we're going to dive
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  into the Gospel of John. How fantastic.
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  And that will take us all the way through to Easter.
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  But for today, we are finishing off this story, and this story
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  ends in totality. And then hope the totality will
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  come in the form of the description of the Babylonians
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  destroying the temple. The temple is God's place on
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  earth. This is the centre of everything
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  that that the David and Solomon's construction had
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  built. It was the centrepiece of their
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  nation. So to have the temple destroyed
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  is the absolute full stop saying it is now the end of this era.
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  Their land and their nation is entirely destroyed.
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  But then if you think all the way back to Samuel, you'll
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  remember God making a promise to David that his line would always
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  continue. And so as the audience reads
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  this, they think, well, that was a a big waste of time, that
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  promise. So at the end, they include this
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  little bit of hope that the Davidic line may yet continue
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  even through this trauma of exile.
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  So this is a sad chapter, sad chapter written by someone and
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  for the audience as they were in exile.
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  So this is basically with sadness describing what happened
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  that ended with them being so far away from the promised land.
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  So let us finish this story as we read together Second Kings
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  chapter 25. So on January 15, during the 9th
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  year of Zedekiah's reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led
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  his entire army against Jerusalem.
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  They surrounded the city and built siege ramps against its
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  walls. Jerusalem was kept under siege
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  until the 11th year of King Zedekiah's reign.
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  By July 18th, in the 11th year of Zedekiah's reign, the famine
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  in the city had become very severe and the last of the food
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  was entirely gone. Then a section of the city wall
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  was broken down. Since the city was surrounded by
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  the Babylonians. The soldiers waited for
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  nightfall and escaped through the gate between the two walls
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  behind the King's garden. Then they headed toward the
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  Jordan Valley, but the Babylonian troops chased the
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  king and overtook him on the plains of Jericho, for his men
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  had all deserted him and scattered.
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  They captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at
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  Ribla, where they pronounced judgement upon Zedekiah.
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  They made Zedekiah watch as they slaughtered his sons.
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  Then they gouged out Zedekiah's eyes, bound him with bronze
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  chains, and led him away to Babylon.
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  On August 14th of that year, which was the 19th year of King
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  Nebuchadnezzar's reign, Nebuzaridan, the captain of the
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  guard and an official of the Babylonian king, arrived in
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  Jerusalem. He burned down the Temple of the
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  Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem.
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  He destroyed all the important buildings in the city.
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  Then he supervised the entire Babylonian army as they tore
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  down the walls of Jerusalem on every side.
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  Then Nebu Zaradan, the captain of the guard, took as exiles the
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  rest of the people who remained in the city, the defectors who
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  had declared their allegiance to the king of Babylon, and the
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  rest of the population. But the captain of the guard
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  allowed some of the poorest people to stay behind to care
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  for the vineyards and fields. The Babylonians broke up the
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  bronze pillars in front of the Lord's temple, the bronze water
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  carts, and the great bronze basin called the sea, and they
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  carried all the bronze away to Babylon.
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  They also took all the ash buckets, shovels, lamp,
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  snuffers, ladles, and all the other bronze articles used for
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  making sacrifices at the temple. The captain of the guard also
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  took the incense burners and basins and all the other
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  articles made of pure gold or silver.
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  The weight of the bronze from the two pillars, the sea and the
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  water carts was too great to be measured.
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  These things had been made for the Lord's temple in the days of
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  Solomon. Each of the pillars was 27 feet
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  tall. The bronze capital on top of
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  each pillar was 7 1/2 feet high and was decorated with a network
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  of bronze pomegranates all the way round.
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  Nebu Zaradan, the captain of the guard, took with him as
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  prisoners Soraya, the high priest, Zephaniah, the priest of
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  the second rank, and the three chief gatekeepers.
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  And from among the people still hiding in the city, he took an
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  officer who had been in charge of the Judean army, five of the
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  King's personal advisers, the army commander's chief secretary
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  who was in charge of recruitment, and 60 other
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  citizens. Nebu Zaradan, the captain of the
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  guard, took them all to the king of Babylon at Ribla.
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  And there at Ribla, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon
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  had them all put to death. So the people of Judah were sent
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  into exile from their land. Then King Nebuchadnezzar
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  appointed Gedeliah son of Ahykum and grandson of Shafen, as
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  governor over the people he had left in Judah.
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  When all the army commanders and their men learned that the king
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  of Babylon had appointed Gedeliah as governor, they went
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  to see him at Mizpah. These included Ishmael son of
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  Nethaniah, Johanan son of Korea, Saraiah son of Tanhumeth the
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  Netafathite, Jezoniah son of the Makethite, and all their men.
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  Getelaya vowed to them that the Babylonian officials meant them
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  no harm. Don't be afraid of them.
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  Live in the lands and serve the king of Babylon and all will go
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  well for you, he promised. But in mid autumn of that year,
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  Ishmael, son of Nathaniah and grandson of Elishama, who was a
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  member of the royal family, went to Mizpah with 10 men and killed
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  Gedeliah. He also killed all the Judeans
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  and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.
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  Then all the people of Judah, from the least to the greatest,
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  as well as the army commanders, fled in panic to Egypt, for they
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  were afraid of what the Babylonians would do to them.
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  In the 37th year of the exile of King Jehoakim of Judah, evil
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  Meridak ascended to the Babylonian throne.
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  He was kind to Jehoikin and released him from prison on
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  April 2nd of that year. He spoke kindly to Jehoikin and
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  gave him a higher place than all the other exiled kings in
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  Babylon. He supplied Jehoikin with new
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  clothes to replace his prison garb and allowed him to dine in
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  the King's presence for the rest of his life.
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  So the king gave him a regular food allowance as long as he
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  lived. Our father, as we hear this
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  story, everything moving inextricably toward disaster for
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  this people, Yet still you end this story with hope.
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  Hope that you remember your promise to your people.
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  Hope that you will restore things at some point in the
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  future. Our Lord, with you there is
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  always hope. Hope in this line of kings that
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  ultimately brings us Jesus, and then Jesus who secures this
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  eternal, unshakable hope that we now have, that through him, His
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  death, his resurrection, everything that he achieved out
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  of love for us, we can call you Father and we can come before
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  you knowing that you accept us with arms open wide, ready to
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  embrace us and draw us into your home forever.
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  Thank you for the decadent kindness of this promise for
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  which we are so grateful. And so we lift you up and we
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  praise you, our wonderful God, our mighty Saviour and our giver
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  of hope. We pray all of this in the name
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  of Jesus, Amen.